"Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he alsoshall cry himself, but shall not be heard."PROVERBS 21:13.

DID our Lord mean that all rich men and
all rich women are to spend eternity
in misery because of faring sumptuously
every day, and wearing purple and fine
linen?
Can it be true that in order to get
to Heaven we must be poor beggars, covered
with sores, and have them licked by dogs,
and must eat crumbs from a rich man's
table?
Has character nothing to do with
future rewards and punishments?
Again,
will it be so that for all eternity the rich, tormented in
fire, will see the poor in bliss, and the honored poor see
the rich in eternal misery?
Can this be the arrangement
of an all-wise, all-loving Creatorone who knew the end
from the beginning?

Our greater knowledge increased the mystery; for the
Scriptures declare that Sheol, Hades, the tomb, is to be
destroyed, that all are to be brought forth from it in the
resurrection.
No other Scripture seemed to agree with
this parable.
It stands in a class by itself, except as we
might use for its support one text in Revelation which
speaks of a symbolic beast and a symbolic false prophet in
torment.
Thus have the thinking people of the Church
been stumbled and perplexed by the story of this lesson.

NOW ALL IS CLEAR, PLAIN

Now we see that our lesson is a parable.
It is not to be
taken literally, any more than are the other parables and
dark sayings of our Savior; such as, "Except ye eat the
flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no
life in you"; or again, "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out...; if thine hand offend thee, cut it off."
Indeed,
we find that Jesus spoke to the people only with parables.
(Matthew 13:34.)
None were ready for the depth of His
teaching until after the Holy Spirit at Pentecost began
to give qualification.

How simple it all seems now! how beautiful!
Many
of God's people are rejoicing that in the light of the present
understanding of the Bible the Divine character is
shining forth, beautiful in its Justice, Wisdom, Love
and Power.

It is not difficult for us to understand that our lesson is
a parable.
To take it literally, as we have seen, would
involve the absurdity of supposing that all beggars go to
Heaven, and that all wealthy go to Hell; for the parable
says nothing about charactereither that the poor man
was good or that the Rich Man was bad.
Viewed as a
parable, we see that the thing said is not the thing meant.
Thus in other parables wheat and sheep represent children
of God; tares and goats represent those dominated by the
Adversary, the god of this world.

THE RICH MAN OF THE PARABLE

In the parable under consideration, the Rich Man represents
a class, and the poor man, Lazarus, another class.
Let us see: The Rich Man was the Jewish nation, which
had been in God's favor for more than sixteen centuries.
To the Jew had been given the promises, the Prophets,
the blessings and privileges of the Law Covenant.
These
symbolically were their purple, fine linen and sumptuous
table.
The fine linen symbolized their typical justification
through typical sacrifices.
Their purple raiment symbolized
royalty; for they were the typical Kingdom.
Their
sumptuous fare represented the Divine promises, as St. Paul's words imply.Romans 11:9.

In Jesus' day Jewish favor began to wane.
They were
completely cut off in A.D. 70, as all Jews will admit.
During the interim of forty years the Rich Man, the Jewish
nation, sickened, died and was buried.
Nationally,
they went to Hades, to the tomb; and their resurrection
has not yet been accomplished, although Zionism is the
beginning of it.

But although nationally dead and buried, the Jews
individually have been very much alive during the last
nineteen centuries.
They have had anguish of soul, as
they have received persecutionssometimes, alas! from
those who profess the name of Jesus, but who deny Him
in their practises.
For all these centuries the Jews have
cried out to God, who in the parable is represented as
Abraham, the Father of the Faithful.
The only answer
that they have had is that there is a gulf of separation between
them and God.
Thank God, this cannot much
longer be the case!
The New Dispensation dawns, in
which the Rich Man will return from Hades.
Israel will
be nationally rehabilitated, and God's favor will again
come to those of them who shall learn needed lessons.

THE POOR MAN OF THE PARABLE

The poor man of the parable represents an outcast
class.
It included publicans and sinners, who had alienated
themselves from God's favor.
It also included Gentiles, to whom Divine favor had never been extended"aliens and strangers from the commonwealth of Israel."
(Ephesians 2:12.)
These had no fine linen of typical
justification, and no purple, representing a share in God's
favor as part of His Kingdom.
None of the promises belonged
to them.
All that they could have would be merely
such crumbs as would fall from the Rich Man's table.

The Scriptures illustrate two such crumbs given to
this class by Jesus.
When He healed the Roman centurion's
servant, it was a concession at the request of the
Jews, who declared that this man was a friend and had
done them good, by building a synagogue, etc.
The healing
of this servant was a crumb.
Similarly, the Syro-Phoenician
woman got a crumb when she came to Jesus
entreating the recovery of her daughter, who was possessed
of a demon.
The Master answered, "It is not
proper to take the children's bread and give it unto dogs."
He here used the customary Jewish phraseology respecting
GentilesGentile dogs.
The Syro-Phoenician woman
was not a Jewess and had no claim on God's favor, but
she replied: "Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
that fall from the children's table."
Jesus noted her faith
and gave her the crumb which she desired.

As the Jews died to their favor, so the outcast publicans,
sinners and Gentiles died to their disfavor; such
of them as desired the favors of God, hungering and
thirsting for His Word of promise, were received by
Him.
The early Church was made up of this Lazarus
class, rejected by the Pharisees as publicans, sinners and
Gentiles.
Instead of being any longer alienated from
God, these became the children of God and heirs of His
promises.
In the parable they are represented as children
of Abrahamin his arms.
In the type, Isaac was the
beloved son of promise to the literal Abraham.
In the
antitype, Jesus and His followers are the Spiritual Seed
of Abraham, received to God's bosom and favor.
Thus
St. Paul writes, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
Seed, and heirs according to the Promise"made to Abraham.Galatians 3:29.

"A GREAT GULF FIXED"

The great gulf between Judaism and Christianity has
been fixed for more than eighteen centuries.
During all
this period no Jew has been permitted to come near to
God, and no Gentile permitted to take the former position
of the Jew, or in any manner to claim favor aside
from Christ.
In the Divine Plan the gulf was fixed unalterably.
"There is none other name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved"whereby we may come into heart relationship with God.
This gulf dates from the time that Christ came and
offered Himself to Israel, and was rejected and crucified.

Thank God, His Word points us to another change of
dispensation at the Second Coming of Christ!
Then the
Lazarus class, now children of God by faith, will be made
actually and gloriously His children beyond the veil.
In
association with Jesus their Lord, they will take control
of the world; for they will be His Bride and Joint-heir
in the Kingdom.
What will happen to the Rich Man
then?
Oh, he is to have a resurrection from Hades!

While God's Kingdom will be represented on the
spiritual plane by the Lazarus class, it will be represented
on the earthly plane by another class, which will be Jewish.
The Jews who crucified Jesus will not be made
princes in the earth in association with Messiah's spiritual
Empire, but some of their brethren will bea class whom
they have been accustomed to call fathers will be made
Princes.
These Scripturally are known as "Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and all the Prophets," and all who during the
Jewish Epoch proved themselves loyal to God and faithful,
described by St. Paul in Hebrews 11:32-40.

This is the Divine Promise, "In thy Seed shall all the
families of the earth be blessed."
The Spiritual Seed of
Abraham, the Church, gets the first share in this Promise,
and the natural seed of Abraham gets the second part;
but both together will be used by the Lord in rolling away
the curse and pouring out, instead, favors and blessings
upon humanity, upon whomsoever will accept them.

DIVES' FIVE BRETHREN

The parable represents Dives as praying for a drop of
water to cool his parched tongue.
Symbolically, parabolically,
this represents the Jewish people in great distress,
asking God to allow Christians to give them some
help from their troubles.
Have the Jews ever appealed
to God for help?
Have they prayed for relief from the
persecutions which have come to them in the past and
which to some extent still continue in Russia?
Surely
they have!
Moreover, they have appealed to representatives of the Lazarus classrepresentatives of Christianitydesiring that their release and relief should come
through them.

An illustration of this prayer for relief in our own
day was afforded in the appeal of the Jews to President
Roosevelt that he would use his influence with the government
of Russia for the amelioration of Jewish persecutions.
Did they get this drop of water?
Nay! Mr.
Roosevelt replied that the comity of nations would not
permit such a communication from a friendly nation.

The parable goes further and develops the fact that
the Rich Man had five brethren in danger of joining him
in the trouble that was upon him.
Who were his five
brethren?
We reply that the Jews of Palestine in Jesus'
day represented chiefly the tribes of Benjamin and Judah,
while the majority of the other ten tribes were scattered
abroad in various lands.
The question raised is, Did this
trying experience affect merely the Jews of Palestine,
who had enjoyed most of God's favors, or did it include
also the Jews scattered abroad?
The answer is given in
the parable, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let
them hear them."
This proves that Jews only were referred
to; for no Gentile had Moses and the Prophets.
The number five is in full accord, also.
Whereas two
tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were represented by the one
Rich Man, so proportionately the other ten tribes would
be represented by five brethren.

And so it was.
The Message of the Gospel, which began
with the Jews in Palestine, was extended to every
land; and the Apostle Paul, in going to any cities amongst
the Gentiles, preached first to the Jews, saying, It is expedient
that the Gospel should be preached first to you;
but seeing you reject the grace of God, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles. (Acts 13:46,47.)
In other words, the test upon
all Israelites was the same.

Thus we are finding a depth of wisdom in Jesus' teachings
beyond anything we could even have dreamed.
We
are finding, too, that the horrible nightmare doctrines of
the Dark Ages poisoned our judgments, crossed our
spiritual eyesight, and hindered us from seeing the beauty
of the Lord's Word.
Thank God for the New Day and
the light that it is shedding upon the Bible!